State officials are seeking to reduce underage drinking in Alabama. (Photo by Jesrapo).

FAIRFIELD,
Alabama -- The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board is seeking to
reduce the amount of underage and binge drinking in the state with its new "Under
Age, Under Arrest" campaign, which is designed to spread the word -- to both
underage kids and their parents -- about the serious health and legal consequences
of irresponsible drinking.

The ABC
Board, along with other groups, made a presentation about these consequences to students at Miles College
in Fairfield today.

About
100 students and staff and faculty members attended the event in Brown
Hall, according to Dean Argo, ABC Board spokesperson.

The presentation
at Miles was only the first of several planned visits by the board to college
campuses in Alabama, according to Argo.

He said
the board felt that advertising and an online presence were not enough to reach
young people with the new campaign.

"Young people
today are bombarded with social media and quick snippets on Instagram and Facebook
and Twitter, and we thought it was important to get face to face with them and let
them hear from our participants the message that if you drink underage that you
will get arrested, and there will be consequences for that action," Argo said by
telephone today following the event.

"We
want to look them in the eye and have them hear our message," Argo said.

The tough talk about the potentially fatal consequences of drunk driving offered by
MADD speakers comes across more effectively in a live setting, according to
Argo.

"Their message
is always more powerful when they are talking to an audience than if it were in
some form of social media," he said.

The
MADD speaker at Miles College today, according to Argo, was Joyce Jones, who
lost her son -- a student at Tuskegee University -- to a drunk driver in 1993.

Dr. Bill
Day of ALCAP spoke in favor of abstinence from alcohol.

Officer
Alvin Underwood, a Fairfield school resource officer, discussed the legal
consequences of drinking under the age of 21, according to Argo.

Argo
said the board is working to schedule similar college presentations in the
coming weeks at The University of Alabama, Auburn University, Troy University, Jacksonville
State and the University of South Alabama.

Sadly,
even some parents don't seem to grasp the seriousness of underage drinking, and
this new campaign is meant to reach them as well as their kids, according to
Argo.

"I am
amazed... at the number of parents of students under 21 who say,' It's OK. We are
having a party at our house, and we are taking up their (car) keys,'" Argo said. "It
doesn't matter. If they are under 21, and you provide them with alcohol, you
are just as guilty of breaking the law as the young person who drinks."

The ABC
Board cites the following grim statistics:

In Alabama, 41 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds
report binge drinking, according to statistics supplied by the ABC Board.

Among U.S. college students, 61 percent are
drinkers, and 39 percent are binge drinkers.

Nationwide,
about 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year from alcohol-related car
crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning and other injuries.

Young
people who begin drinking as teenagers are six times more likely to become
problem drinkers.

The ABC initiative was kicked off in November
with programs at high schools in the Montgomery and Birmingham areas.

The
event at Miles was presented by the ABC Board in partnership with The Links
Inc., according to a board news release.